Buy British!

Is it impossible to do?

In these fast-moving days of trade wars and tariffs, when "the news" is nothing more than that of politically motivated "wars" and gloom is predicted throughout the UK, caused by gross wastage of public funds on immigrants, "adult social services", drug abusers, smokers, "rights groups" and all manner of social frippery; it is time for British people to bolster and expedite the wellbeing of our country by concentrating their expenditure, whenever possible, within the UK, especially so if you are in a procurement role of any kind.

I know, because I've tried (for headphones, speakers and shoes), that buying British, i.e actually made in the UK, is nearly impossible (or very expensive very high quality stuff), but please try wherever possible to buy locally produced "stuff"; usually food or services (including holidays) or products clearly marked as made or constructed in the UK. 

One other sure fire way to help the UK is to recycle or upcycle or to purchase old things originally produced in the UK and still serviced by UK workers. Finally (I can hear you saying), if you give to charities, give to smaller regional ones, for they are less likely to absorb your contributions as "running costs" and usually contribute to the UK economy; I donate in this order: Children, parents, housing, debt relief, and education. At the very end of your list should be religion or "pets" or the RNLI (seemingly now no more than a privately funded illegal immigrant collection service for the government).

Your aim should be to keep money and employment in the UK and for one UK industry to feed another producing for a UK market. Major buyers could encourage this change (but of course they rarely do).

To use a British phrase, I know I am "pissing in the wind", but without some pro-active actions by the masses nothing much is going to get better here in the UK.

Things I have recently bought from a (proven) UK manufacturer:

Locally reared, prepared meat, cheese, veg and foods in general
Gardening tools
Shoes
Barbeque wood charcoal
Wine grown and produced in the UK (good but expensive!) 
I gave a little money to a small local UK loans charity 
I gave a little money to a UK school uniform swapping charity
I stopped buying Starbucks/Subway for Greggs! (who pay taxes)
Timpson's shoe repairers re-soled my comfy boots

I holidayed in family-run establishments in Scotland & NI

 Anyway, chin-up! It can only get better (can't it?)

     

What is wrong with "British" parents?

What on earth is wrong with the recent generations of parents in the United Kingdom? Why will they not ensure their children are vaccinated when their time comes due, even as a deadly Measles outbreak flares-up and kills a child and a Chickenpox epidemic is likely as so few children are inoculated, why are parents so blasé about their responsibility.

Unlike my generation, modern parents are not as trusting of anything said by "officials", but are more than happy to trust their own judgement by predicting "their" child will not catch and spread the likes of Mumps, Measles, Chickenpox, Tetanus, Whooping Cough, Rubella, Typhus, Diphtheria and even Polio (from Pakistan), some of which can kill or severely maim their precious child(ren).

I wonder how enraged they would be following infection in their child or themselves via another unvaccinated child? Whooping Cough is particularly easy to transmit and is killing children to this day, as does Measles.

UK vaccinations for children are free so use them you fools. I don't care that you think they do not  work, that you are in a suspicious-minded ethnic group or have some crack-pot religious reasoning. Just do it and don't play with your child's health. The rest of the world believe in inoculation so why don't you? If worried about it, click here.

We know it makes sense

Smallpox killed millions but vaccination eradicated it globally

N.B. British parents are not unique in their misguided mistrust of inoculation, as illustrated by a localised but lethal Measles outbreak in Texas and a downturn globally, attributed to social media generated mistrust, the proliferation of wars and disruption to services by natural (climate change) consequences.

The only winners in the innoculation war are the diseases and we don't want to go back there do we?

Meaningful songs #32 - BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD

This  is the thirty second in an occasional series of songs from my collection, with the intent of introducing music to younger readers that they may gain appreciation of music from the classic years, 1957-1990. 

I have lived long enough to hear the "popular" music industry become ever-more formulaic, lazy, uninspiring and cynical; delivering "units" and "artistes" as interesting and memorable as polished mud.

Meaningful songs that eloquently convey a story, sentiment, or social comment and make it to national consciousness are rare these days. If you agree this song is meaningful, please introduce it to someone young; they might enjoy becoming "musical archaeologists".

Todays song, titled "For What It's Worth", released in 1966, is by a group called BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD.

Buffalo Springfield (Before Neil Young moved on)

Hear the song here

For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound?) was written by band member Stephen Stills, who went on to become a prolific songsmith with many other bands , sometimes again with the equally famous Neil Young. 

It is a song of it's time: Flower power and hippie sensibilities woven through a slightly trippy tune that draws you in and then delivers a social comment on the state of the(ir) world, espousing peace, fundamentally, rather than the ways of political powers then and their forces of oppression (the "heat"). It is a pacifist's song saying we better be wary of what more troubles we stir up (for ourselves) and seems pertinent today  in 2025.

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH

There's something happening in here

But what it is ain't exactly clear 

There's a man with a gun over there 

Telling me I got to be aware

 

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound

Everybody look what's going down

  

There's battle lines being drawn

And nobody's right if everybody's wrong

Young people speaking their minds

Getting so much resistance from behind

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound

Everybody look what's going down 

 

What a field-day for the "heat"

A thousand people in the street

Singing songs and carrying signs

Mostly say, hurray for our side 

 

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound

Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep 

Into your life it will creep 

It starts when you're always afraid 

Step out of line, the man come and take you away 

 

We better stop, hey, what's that sound

Everybody look what's going 

Stop, hey, what's that sound

Everybody look what's going

Stop, now, what's that sound

Everybody look what's going

Stop, children, what's that sound

Everybody look what's going down

 

Return to the first article in this series or hear the first song in this series.

Read the next article in the series or hear the next song in the series.

For the index of all songs in this blog click here

Smug Idiotic Palestinian Supporters

Instead of causing trouble and damage over here in the UK, these supporters of Palestinians should pop over to Gaza help rebuild it or to fight for their Palestinian cause(s), for Hamas is now openly criticised by those existing in Gaza for the plight they are in, causing Hamas to turn upon their Palestinian "hosts". Hamas are not about standing-up for Palestinians, but the destruction of Israel (to please Iran and others in the area); though I feel if Israel had not always wanted to play hardball in the region their neighbours wouldn't hate them so much.

The background to this protest/vandalism is Barclays' willingness, with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and others (according to the Financial Times) to buy Israeli "war bonds", these being bundles of war debt incurred by Israel, upon which Israel promises to pay an annual %return (profit) to bond holders, until a time when those bonds are redeemed for their original purchase price. Such bonds are a way for Israel to defer the cost of their ongoing war by persuading banks to fund the war at a fraction of the actual cost of the war. The banks pay Israel's war bills now and trust Israel to repay them at later dates, causing critics to say the banks are funding war. Such a concept is not new: I was told war bonds were the invention of Rothchild's bank, hundreds of years ago, who would "fund" both side in a war! 

Getting back to the protestors, what on earth do they expect the UK to do? Fight their fight? I'm sure they will achieve nothing here, as armchair "anarchists" rarely do; are they naive enough to believe that only Barclays is "bad"? - They are all "bad". So, PALESTINE ACTION please know that expressing your indignation of Israel et-al will count for nothing and merely annoy the greater population within which you protest. With the backing of the USA, Israel are omnipotent in their region; not without faults, but definitely "top dog"; but now you have been labelled a terrorist organisation because you spray-painted a military jet in the UK to protest the actions of a new Nazi-like state, where has that got you? To fight your just cause (supported by Sally Rooney no less) go to Gaza please, which might start to settle down as Hamas has agreed to a new Gaza ceasefire.

Before you accuse me of Israeli or Jewish bias, read some of my previous articles.

Here, here, here, or here. And finally this.

Remember: Pearl Witherington (aka Cecile Cornioley)

Here is a British agent active during world war 2. She was a member of Britain' SOE (Special Operation Executive) and at the same time a French resistance group leader.

She was French by birth, to British parents and served the United Kingdom with resolution and distinction behind enemy lines. Born Pearl Witherington, she served as an SOE agent from 1943, after leaving a British Air Ministry job, aged 29, to be parachuted back into France. She became the only woman to ever simultaneously lead an SOE network and a 1500 strong French resistance group, but managed to survive the war, returning to England, then into retirement in France until her death, aged 94.

Like many who served for the UK, she will drift into history and her story lost, but take a little time to remember her service.

RIP Pearl Witherington (aka Cecile Cornioley)

Pearl upon receiving her wings, aged 92, after so much secrecy

There is a good book that remind us of  "Women In War - True Stories".

Lord NORMAN TEBBIT M.P. - R.I.P.

I do not have respect for any current politician of any persuasion, either because I have not know them, or because of the simple fact that they are a (modern) politician.

There has of course been many UK politicians deserving of a virtuous eulogy, but sadly many warrant no more than a sterile resume of their life. Lord Norman Tebbit, former M.P. and Conservative  Cabinet Minister (always under Prime Minister "Lady" Margaret Thatcher) was not such a person.

I first became aware of "Norman" in the 1980s with the introduction of his caricature into the UK satirical TV show called Spitting Image, often portrayed in a black leather fetish suit of a manic biker sadist; He wasn't of course, but he did get a "hard man" image, telling anyone whinging about unemployment to "get on your bike" and get a job!

For me he came across as a plain-speaking, passionate and erudite man, who held principles for behaviour that sometimes put him out of step with his fellow government colleagues - but at least he held beliefs, by which he lived and spoke about in calm and measured tones. He was perhaps the most likely MP to usurp Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in her later and more dictatorial days.

Norman's start in life suggests he would naturally be amongst the Labour ranks, but restrictive practices went against his nature so he joined the Conservative party. He believed in self reliance and disliked those who didn't.

Following an IRA attempt to kill the whole Conservative cabinet, by blowing-up the Brighkton hotel they were all staying at, Norman resigned from parliament to forevermore nurse his wife who was paralysed in the explosion. Norman, thank you for your service.

Lord Norman Tebbit (1931-2025) R.I.P.

Norman's Spitting Image characterisation 

Here is more information about Lord Norman Tebbit, from SKY News, from the BBC  and from a Polish media source.